When visiting the clearance rack at your favorite retailers, there are some things that you are willing to bargain with yourself about: a missing button can easily be replaced; a smudge of makeup on the collar can be done away with a Tide stick; a hole underneath the arm can be sewn. But used underwear is most likely not an item you are willing to bargain on, no matter how astronomical the discount might be. However, the TODAY show comes as the bearer of bad news, releasing its report that major retailers are reselling presumably used underwear and bathing suits, and the worst part is that you might be completely unaware if it has been on the bums of another lone stranger.

The rather gross news comes via a second installation of Jeff Rossen’s investigative series, Rossen Reports. In 2010, the Rossen Reports team went undercover wearing hidden cameras and visiting some of our most coveted stores for lingerie purchases, such as Victoria’s Secret, Nordstrom, Wal-Mart, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, The Gap and Marshalls–all of which were recorded putting used underwear back on their shelves. Now, four years later, the team has gone undercover again to reveal a fragment of improvement (Macy’s, Bloomingdales, The Gap and Nordstrom marked items as damaged or put them in a back room). However, other stores, perhaps those most known for specifically selling lingerie or having extremely low prices on designer lingerie, are still at fault for this dirty act.

When Rossen Reports informed retailers of its evidence in 2010, each responded stating that they would “re-educate” its employees.

However, Victoria’s Secret, Marshalls and Wal-Mart might want to develop a new curriculum that is simple and plain: do not resell used undergarments. AT ALL. Rossen’s 2014 investigation found that employees at these retailers were blatantly retagging returned underwear and placing them back on the racks and shelves before the day’s end. And suddenly, we might have just received a fragment of a clue to our down-there mysteries.

As in 2010, each retailer in the 2014 report released a statement referencing its old, dirty ways. Victoria’s Secret, Marshalls and Wal-Mart stated that they put their customers first and will basically “re-educate” once more. As for looking out for your own behind, Rossen suggests washing all underwear after purchasing and asking an employee to retrieve undergarments on display from the back to ensure its coming immediately out of its packaging onto your bum.

1. Guessing your clothes size instead of saying you don’t know

There is nothing wrong with not being sure of what size you are in shirts, dresses and any other number of clothes. The human body is always changing. We as fashion stylists and human beings understand this. What we don’t understand is why you would have us grab seven different sizes of jeans when we are the ones who will have to put them all back at the end of the day. Not cute.

2. Bad hygeine

One time a gentlemen with horrible dandruff asked to try on several hats. I could not refuse him. We had to damage every single one out. Also, bathing and wearing deodorant is essential in any situation, especially if you are trying on clothes you may not purchase. No one should have to smell your naked B.O. from the fitting room halfway across the store. It is not fair to the employees or your fellow customers.

3. Making a mess of things for no apparent reason

Remember every shirt you just “want to see” must be refolded by another employee, whose manager has to check them out at the end of the night. It’s fine if you take things off the racks or take a sweater off the table, just please put it back.

Adding to that – Ruining a whole stack of folds

Folding clothes is the most time consuming task in keeping the floor up to corporate standards. The edges of every pair of folded shirts and pants need to be exactly even. If you know you can’t fold clothes well, instead of ruining a whole stack of to find your size, feel free to ask an associate for assistance. That’s what they are there for and they would be more than happy to help you. They would also appreciate that you asked.

4. Trying to haggle. Everything.

You’re broke. We get it. We most likely are too, depending on which store we work at. But we can’t change the price for you. In rare cases, a manager might be able to. But the bottom line is, if you can’t afford it, ask us for an alternative. If we don’t have it, we can probably direct you to another brand that does.

5. Staying too long after the store closes

We have friends, lovers, children, siblings, errands, plans and LIVES. It is understandable if you need an extra ten minutes after we close to make your final decisions and get to the register. But when you’re pushing it longer, that’s just inconsiderate. Especially if you know we can’t and wont ask you to leave. Unlike Nicki.

6. Not believing us

If we don’t have your size in that shoe, we don’t have it. Why would we lie? We want you to have the shoe too (especially if we are working on commission). Yes we can check other stores for you, we we might have it online. But please don’t ask another associate to go look for you. If anything, just ask a manager if you don’t believe us.

7. Hearing what you want to hear instead of what was actually said to you

I would never tell you an item that is marked 15% off is actually 50% off. Hunny, don’t even try causing a scene. I won’t fall for it, my boss won’t fall for it and the other customers watching you probably won’t even fall for it. Getting that worked up isn’t a good look on you. Just don’t.
Also, a sign that says “SALE – up to 70% off!” means exactly that – UP TO. Not every item will be discounted that high or discounted at all.

8. Trying to make us join you in putting yourself down

No one looks like a super model. No one looks like Tyson Beckford and Naomi Campbell in the magazines. Even the real Tyson Beckford and Naomi Campbell don’t look like the Tyson and Naomi in the magazines. We are all beautiful in our own unique ways. There is nothing wrong with you. Please, don’t ask us to laugh along with you about your looks. Read Beyonce’s lips, hotness.

9. Trying on half the store and taking slim to nothing

We are thrilled that you love our line of clothes and you look great in them! But if you are going to try on more than ten items, please take at least a couple home with you. After all, we will have to put all the clothes away you decided against.

10. Lying

Yes, when you put several items on hold and promise us you will “come back for them in a hour,” we know just as well as you do that you won’t be back on 5th Avenue until Earth’s next celestial cycle. And you will probably still want that same handbag from four seasons ago. But we put your things on hold anyway. Just be real with us, it won’t hurt our feelings.

11. Thinking “Hi!” means “Give me your money and leave”

We get paid to greet you. Believe me, we don’t want to do it either. But we are expected to greet any customer the first time we see them. Don’t think that means we are trying to push clothes in your hand and money out of your Chanel handbag. And please, don’t shoo us away when we greet you by waving your hand and saying “I’m just looking.” That’s just sassy with a side of rude.

12. Insisting to try something on a mannequin and then not buying it

Dressing mannequins is an acquired art, a very difficult one. It can take several minutes, if not close to a half hour to put clothes on/pull them off a mannequin,especially if they are wearing skinny jeans. A lot of care goes into it and those stiff parts do not move. We understand if the last pair of something in your size is on the mannequin but if we pull it off, please take it home with you.

Let’s hear it

The nation has many prominent retail brands with hundreds of stores at which debauchery, lunacy, and theft all occur. One of these retailers is Macy’s. I worked there from 2008-2010. Here are my confessions (but keep in mind some of these may have changed since I departed).

1. The Black Friday sales aren’t that special. The merchandise is marked down but A. It’s marked down from an inflated, artificially high price and B. It’s not as marked down as it is on other days. Macy’s knows that many of the Black Friday shoppers are there just because it’s Black Friday. The majority of these shoppers aren’t in the store for the other times of the year. Thus, they automatically assume they’re getting the best deals because it’s Black Friday, but they’re not.

2. From my experiences, the last weekend before Christmas has better sales than Black Friday.

3. Any item whose price ends in 98 cents is what’s called an “Every Day Value” or “EDV” item. Coupons cannot be used on these items. Associates cannot override this.

4. Sales associates can change prices on the POS (it stands for point of sale, get your mind out of the gutter) and do other little tricks in some cases. In other cases the POS will literally not let them make any changes. Please don’t ask them to “just change the price for me” because even if the computer will let them, they’ll get fired if/when management finds out.

5. Because price changing is do-able, some employees price-change either to appease nasty customers or just to steal. One of my former coworkers used to have his father buy items from him and he’d change the price. He ran this racket for about three months before getting caught.

6. There’s a credit card quota. One of the worst things about Macy’s is getting a credit card pitched to you when you walk within 10 feet of an employee. Nobody likes dealing with 1,000 hard sells per minute. Please don’t hate on the employees for this though. They have to open so many per week or face unemployment.

6. Management shames employees who don’t open credit cards. In the store I worked at, there was a giant piece of oaktag in the lobby of the employee entrance. At the top was the amount of credit cards we had to open that week. Beneath that were two columns, one titled “Who’s helping” and one titled “Who’s not.” Management would also ask you questions like “Why don’t you want to help your coworkers and open cards?” in front of the whole team. It was horrible.

7. Suits are required, at least for men. Showing up to work in a suit that cost $400 only to get paid $7.75 per hour was surreal in the worst way possible. Right as I left, they loosened the dress code a bit. You were allowed to not wear a suit if you wore a black dress shirt, a tie, and black dress slacks. Yay, I got to take my suit jacket off! What a difference!

8. The employees aren’t instructed about fashion or clothing or really anything other than how to operate the POS and how to pitch the Macy’s card. The first time someone asked me to measure their neck I wanted to refer them to a legit tailor. I’m sure there are people at Macy’s who know these things, they just didn’t learn it from any training program Macy’s had.

9. We had to call customers “guests.” We’d get written up if we didn’t do this.

10. We had to ask open-ended questions to guests. If we asked “Can I help you find something?”—a question that can be answered in a yes or a no—the grumpier managers would write us up. The nicer ones would subject us to a half-hour long lecture about salesmanship. I preferred the write up.

11. It was totally normal to run out of boxes and shopping bags. Please don’t yell at the sales associate if they don’t have any left. This happened countless times when I worked there. Yes, the store operations manager should’ve done a better job making sure supply stockpiles were adequate but he didn’t. Don’t ruin some innocent cashier’s day because of it.

12. Only some departments are on commission. Customers, sorry, “guests” always implied I was being disingenuous when I was nice to them. They thought I was on commission and was just looking for a sale. While all associates had a sales goal, only some departments got commission—shoes and furniture. That could be different now, though.

13. Macy’s expected us to solicit more than just a credit card. If you’ve ever worked for Macy’s, the terms “Shop for a Cause” and “RIF ticket” will make your heart race. Shop for a Cause was awful. Basically, we had to sell these crappy coupon books. They cost $5 and could only be used on one day of the year. The hook management instructed us to use, knowing it was a shitty deal, was “charity”. It’s true that Macy’s donated a “portion” of the money to charity, but they were doing it to get a tax write off from someone else’s money.

RIF stood for “Reading is Fundamental.” We had to sell these raffle tickets that came with a $20 coupon, though my memory of these is a little hazy.

14. Alfani, I.N.C., American Rag, Club Room, and a few other brands are all pathetic attempts at making Macy’s store brands sound trendy. Generally, these items are of inferior quality and are overpriced.

15. Customers doing horrible things was a routine occurrence. One lady put her used tampon into a handbag on the sales floor. Some teenage punks nearly burned down the third floor when they detonated a bunch of firecrackers. One guy pulled down his pants and shit right in the center of the home goods department. Insane things like this happened a couple of times a month.

16. Generally, anything with a tag that looks like a receipt was returned merchandise. When you pick up a shirt and see that the tag is atypical, that it looks like a receipt and not a proper price tag, it usually means that the item was returned. However, it’s also possible that the tag just came off and an associate had to print new one.

17. Fitting rooms are disgusting. I worked in every department save for furniture and lingerie. After cleaning out men’s fitting rooms and women’s fitting rooms, I laugh when people tell me that women are cleaner.

18. Stores aren’t as cleanly as you think. The store I worked at had a mouse infestation. It wasn’t uncommon to see mouse turds on some of the fixtures throughout the store. Management did their best but the mice came from the mall and the mall didn’t care. They told us to clean the turds with Windex.

19. Employees are forced to be overly friendly. Getting annoyed that an associate is asking for your name or possibly coming onto you? That’s part of the policy. We have to name exchange. That was part of “STAR” selling which stood for “smile, talk about the merchandise, ask for Macy’s STAR rewards card, regard the customer by name.” The fact that I still remember that 3 years later makes me depressed.

20. Cosmetics employees have it extra rough. Not only do they have to deal with a sales goal from Macy’s, they have to deal with a sales goal from whatever cosmetics line they peddle. That means getting chewed out twice as much every week from two sets of mangers. So have a little consideration next time one of them is trying coerce you into buying something.
Sourced from thethoughtcatelog.com